Vehicle suspension attachment assembly

Abstract

A vehicle suspension attachment assembly 10 including a spring 17 , a pair of spring seats 16, 18 which are coupled to the spring 17 , a bushing 25 which is coupled to seat 16 , and an attachment member 24 which is received by the seat 16 and the bushing 25 and which is substantially concentric to the seat 16 and to the bushing 25 , thereby reducing the overall packaging requirements of a vehicle suspension 12 incorporating the assembly 10.

What is claimed is:  
     
       1. A vehicle suspension attachment assembly comprising: 
       a suspension member having a bottom end, an opposed top end, and a first aperture;  
       a lower seat member which is attached to said bottom end of said suspension member and which couples said suspension member to a vehicular control arm;  
       a compliant bushing having an outer race, an inner race, and a second aperture, wherein said outer race is coupled to a vehicular subframe and wherein said second aperture is aligned with said first aperture;  
       an upper seat member having a third aperture, wherein said upper seat member is disposed upon and is coupled to said top end of said suspension member, and wherein said third aperture is aligned with and cooperates with said second aperture to form a bolt reception cavity which is disposed above said suspension member and which extends only from said upper seat member to said compliant bushing; and  
       a single bolt which is selectively disposed within said bolt reception cavity, which is detached from said vehicular control arm, wherein said suspension member is coupled to said subframe by only said single bolt.  
     
     
       2. The vehicle suspension attachment assembly of  claim 1  further comprising a rubber isolator which is coupled to the lower seat member. 
     
     
       3. A vehicle suspension attachment assembly comprising: 
       a spring having a first aperture;  
       a lower spring seat member which is attached to a first end of said spring;  
       a bushing having an outer race and an inner race, wherein said outer race is coupled to a vehicular subframe;  
       an upper spring seat member having a seat portion and a race portion which forms said inner race of said bushing, wherein said seat portion is disposed upon and is attached to a second end of said spring, and wherein said race portion includes a second aperture which extends through said seat portion and which is disposed above said spring and which extends only from said seat portion to said bushing; and  
       a single attachment member which is detached from a vehicular control arm and is selectively disposed within said second aperture, wherein said single attachment member is effective to couple said spring to said vehicular subframe.  
     
     
       4. The vehicle suspension attachment assembly of  claim 3  wherein said single attachment member is substantially concentric to said bushing. 
     
     
       5. The vehicle suspension attachment assembly of  claim 4  herein said single attachment member is a bolt. 
     
     
       6. The vehicle suspension attachment assembly of  claim 4  wherein said bushing is substantially compliant. 
     
     
       7. A method for reducing an amount of packaging space required by a suspension assembly having a control arm and a subframe, said method comprising the steps of: 
       providing a suspension member having a bottom end, an opposed top end, and a first aperture;  
       coupling said bottom end of said suspension member to said control arm;  
       providing a compliant busing having and outer race, an inner race, and second aperture;  
       coupling said compliant bushing to said subframe in a manner which substantially aligns said second aperture with said first aperture of said suspension member;  
       providing an upper seat member having a third aperture;  
       coupling said upper seat member to said top end of said suspension member;  
       aligning said third aperture with said first and second apertures, wherein said aligned second and third apertures cooperatively form a bolt reception cavity which is disposed above said suspension member and which extends only from said upper seat member to said compliant bushing; and  
       coupling said suspension member to said subframe using only a single bolt by inserting said single bolt into said bolt reception cavity.  
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 7  further comprising the step of causing said single bolt to be concentric with said suspension member.